Crusader Kings 2 Redux

[Richard Hakluyt]

Some of the barony slots for a county are vacant but available for founding a new holding (at vast cost). This presumably represents clearing forests, draining marshes etc etc.

[garbon]

Some of the barony slots for a county are vacant but available for founding a new holding (at vast cost). This presumably represents clearing forests, draining marshes etc etc.

Cost depends on province. For ones where it is 500, not really so vast when one considers cost for hiring mercs.

[Richard Hakluyt]

Yes, thinking about it the cost is only vast in the context of the 20-year limit on the demo......

I like the baronies, with their Barons, Bishops and Mayors.........much more interesting than that % tweaking one had to do in CK1.

[Admiral Yi]

Do the different flavors of baronies have different costs and benefits?

[Barrister]

Yes, thinking about it the cost is only vast in the context of the 20-year limit on the demo......

I like the baronies, with their Barons, Bishops and Mayors.........much more interesting than that % tweaking one had to do in CK1.

Yes - I had almost forgotten about that.  A fairly tedious and un-fun mechanic that was.

[Richard Hakluyt]

Yes. A castle is best for troops, cities are best for money and bishoprics are intermediate. There are penalties for directly running a barony of the wrong type. So, as King of Poland, it was best to only directly run castles.

There are probably lots of other differences and consequences which will become apparent on getting the full game.

[Habbaku]

As Rich said, they do have different benefits.  Aside from the effects of money/troops, castles are significantly stronger against sieges and all the different baronies produce a different mix/quantity of troops as well.

[Maximus]

Do the different flavors of baronies have different costs and benefits?

Castles provide the best and most troops, but the least income. Cities are the opposite. Temples do pretty well at both, but only if you make nice with the bishop.

[Richard Hakluyt]

The bishops (Catholic ones anyway) send their financial contributions to either you or the Pope depending on whom they most favour. This makes asshat Popes very popular with your usual monarch 

[garbon]

Do the different flavors of baronies have different costs and benefits?

Baronies can be cities, temples or castles - each with their own disadvantages and advantages.

[garbon]

Yes, thinking about it the cost is only vast in the context of the 20-year limit on the demo......

I like the baronies, with their Barons, Bishops and Mayors.........much more interesting than that % tweaking one had to do in CK1.

Yes - I had almost forgotten about that.  A fairly tedious and un-fun mechanic that was.

And mostly a pointless one for the casual gamer.

[The Minsky Moment]

I think this easily qualifies for the best Paradox design (EU being a board game port).  There are some interface issues with map modes and the message windows, and many of the mechanics are opaque or not well explained, but that is just the normal price of entry for this type of game.  It is a bit overwhelming trying to get a grasp on all the relationships that intertwine with your family and vassals, but I guess that part of the point. 

The ambition/plot system is a great mechanic in theory, but as already pointed out here, it is half-baked right now.  There isn't enough variation in plots and there is far too much emphasis on assassination plots.  Every year of the game is like an I Claudius episode but with a thousand mini Livias scattered all over Europe.  I gather from the Johan comment the devs realize this and I hope it is an early priority.  I guess I wouldn't want the release to be held up for months just to deal with this, but it does really put a dent in enjoyment.

The one game I played the wars seem pretty rational, although the HRE was very quick to roll up a bunch of pagans in a short period of time.  There need to be some kind of speed bump mechanic other than boosting pagan troop numbers, which is still not even close to enough to hold off an HRE+allies, or a big kingdom like Poland leavened with mercs.  I would expect the pagan wars to be decades-long grinds requiring backup from holy orders, not medieval blitzkriegs resulting in mass imperial annexations by 1067.

Of course it also remains to be seen how things play out over a long game.  but so far, so good.

[Barrister]

I think this easily qualifies for the best Paradox design (EU being a board game port).

I'm going to have to play for ore than 20 years before saying that.

[Tamas]

I think this easily qualifies for the best Paradox design (EU being a board game port).

I'm going to have to play for ore than 20 years before saying that.

I am curious about the long-term economical balance, seems a tad bit too easy atm. But that can be easily balanced.
I am very enthusiastic about this game.

[The Minsky Moment]

I'm going to have to play for ore than 20 years before saying that.

Design as in referring to the various mechanics and their interaction at a conceptual level, not necessarily as to whether the implementation actually works right.